Follow us

Posts by Alexander Fury

Sort

Jac's latest look is an incredible gilded and panniered number from the S/S 2011 Alexander McQueen collection, created by Sarah Burton. Perfectly suited to the balletic direction the shoot has taken, it seems...

Our ninth look of the day is another spectacular haute couture creation by John Galliano for Christian Dior - no less grand, mind - with rubber sockettes by Atsuko Kudo. Our dancer Ben is currently having a pair of buttercup-yellow tights spray-painted to match the ombre gradients of those petals, and then we'll be back in action once again!

What does haute couture actually mean? The phrase itself was coined in the 1850s, as a way to differentiate the refinement and exquisite quality evident in the work of Charles Frederick Worth from that of standard 'couture' - literally translated as sewing or needlework, and at that time conjuring up images of provincial dressmakers, bodged seams and the tacky excesses of decoration that characterise bourgeoise nineteenth-century taste (especially evident during the Second Empire). Haute couture was the wheat, couture the chaff.

That's the (fashion) dictionary definition in any case, and a nifty Anglais translation, but how does haute couture translate today? Haute couture means garments that blur the line between clothing and art, invested with hundreds (or even thousands) of hours of intricate hand-labour, while remaining light as air. It also implies a certain ceremony, a certain grandeur, and a certain price-tag. Frankly, couture is what you wear when you need to make an entrance.

Today, we could hear the swish and whisper of Jac's expansive Dior skirts from outside of the studio - her gown was one of Alister Mackie's starting points for this shoot, while John Galliano himself stated that his collection was inspired by Nick Knight's images of flowers. It's about to be transformed back into one of those Knight blooms, and you can watch all the action on our live stream

SHOWstudio.com's live streams have always been about showing the process behind the creation of a fashion image - and this shoot is no exception. There is, however, a twist: for this story, Nick Knight and Alister Mackie are taking the concept of 'constructing' a fashion image quite literally, slicing and dicing up imagery as it is created, and knitting the components together into an entirely new image. In this case, Alister and Nick and combining multiple dresses together - those flying panes of fabric are being subtly reengineered to resemble petals, flailing limbs to approximate stamens, and the final product to unfurl across multiple double-pages like exotic human-hybrid blooms. The process behind this hyper-modern creation is, oddly enough, quite old-fashioned - less photoshop, more cut-n-paste, as Nick and Alister assemble the imagery via scissors, sellotape and a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Comments

AndreaJanke17:32 19 Dec 2010Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today I followed your Live-stream of Dynamic Blooms and I was complitely fascinated of your creative art work in fashion exposure!
Lanvin enchanted me with its latest collection published also on my blog.
Congrats to AnOtherMag!
Have a wonderful 4th Advent with those amazing clips and thank you for sharing your working day!
ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

The last look before we break for lunch is this rather incredible fringed number from the house of Versace, here captured in a whirling dervish of spontaneous movement. The dynamic element of our shoot has been well underlined - but where are those blooms? Eagle-eyed viewers will have seen Nick and Alister beavering away with abstracted cut-outs of today's shots - and hopefully we can reveal a bit more of the 'blooms' very soon.

Rounding out our trio of Lanvin looks is the opening number from the S/S 2011 show, and another Georgia O'Keeffe flashback in billowing chiffon. Interestingly, the Lanvin dresses are not silk - that weightless plume of fabric is achieved by high-tech synthetic fibres. No wind machine required: at least not for this shot.

As they have been garnering a great deal of attention on the SHOWstudio.com twitter feed I thought I'd post an image of these rather incredible Lanvin creations for S/S 2011. The heel is probably longer than my calf - a cross between stiletto and scaffolding, trussed up with some industrial-looking hide straps and given the softer touch of a rounded ballerina toe. The perfect christmas present for any shoe fetishists (and more than a few fashion fetishists too).

Our first look is Lanvin - a dress Tim Blanks of style.com described as resembling 'great big Georgia O'Keeffe flower'.That got Alister Mackie thinking, hence the emerging mood of herbaceous transformation on this shoot in general. We're shooting our second Lanvin look now, while Nick and Alister will begin to collage together new images from the shots any moment!

Mary Katrantzou, her wonderful assistant Lindsey and the stellar team from Absolute Flowers are hard at work in our LiveStudio encrusting the wire lampshade skirt with a selection of very real-life chrysanthemums. Later today, we've drafted in Uliana from Storm Models to showcase the final creation for us, and the piece itself will feature in the SHOWstudio Shop exhibition Florist. After an overnight chill in the flower fridge at Absolute Flowers, that is!

Comments

Kaylynn14:23 24 Feb 2013You put the lime in the coconut and drink the artlice up.

Mary Katrantzou and her team are in the LiveStudio - including, for today, Hayley Newstead of Absolute Flowers and a hothouse of multi-coloured blooms. The team will set to work shortly on embellishing the lampshade skirt structure - after a quick conflab to determine exactly the approach to take in securing the stamens to the steel. As soon as the floristry commences, so will our live stream! Stay tuned!

Comments

Heloise16:11 25 Feb 2013wrote.. The most effective plcaes to create rustic country properties are those that have dry and fairly arid regions. Here you are able to also use the colors to make kitchens much more rustic. Tawny sands, moss green, brown tumbleweeds, blood-red sunsets, and wildflowers in bright pink and yellow shade are essentially the most proper colors to use. If you ever want, you'll be able to paint the cabinet body in a deep, rich red. Or you are able to paint your doors or window sills pale lemon yellow. Sage green is fantastic in everything use it to complement other colors within the room.

Today's LiveStudio session with Mary Katrantzou is - after slight delay - now due to kick off at 11:00 GMT, with the designer herself in residence at Bruton Place. After welder Rob Hall completed the piano steel structure to support Katrantzou's lampshade skirt yesterday, the designer herself will today work with Absolute Flowers to embellish the skirt with real-life blooms, reflecting the theme of our Florist exhibition. In addition, Katrantzou will be answering questions submitted through our LiveStudio page live on camera.

Our live stream of the first stage of Mary Katrantzou's LiveStudio residency is now complete, as welder Rob Hall finishes his painstaking work on the almost-architectural structure that will support Katrantzou's cornucopia of flora, welded from solid piano steel in much the same way as those aforementioned Victorian crinolines. Tune in tomorrow for the second day of LiveStudio action when Mary herself adds a botanic burst of floral foliage to the final garment, alongside the team from Absolute Flowers - fabulously in line with the theme of our new Florist exhibition.